If you study yoga in India, you will almost certainly eat sattvic food. It is served in ashrams, retreats and teacher trainings across the country, including ours in Uttarkashi. To a newcomer it can look simply like vegetarian home cooking. Behind it, though, is a precise idea about how food affects the body, the mind and the practice, and that idea is worth understanding whether or not you ever come to India.
The three gunas
Yoga and Samkhya philosophy describe everything in nature, including the mind and the food we eat, as a mixture of three qualities, or gunas:
- Sattva: clarity, lightness, balance and calm.
- Rajas: activity, heat, restlessness and desire.
- Tamas: heaviness, dullness, inertia and sleep.
All three are always present and all three are needed; nobody could get out of bed without some rajas, or sleep without tamas. The aim of yogic living is to cultivate more sattva, because a clear, steady mind is the ground that meditation grows in. Food is one of the most direct ways to influence that balance, which is why the yogic texts discuss it at length. The Bhagavad Gita, for example, describes foods by these three qualities in its seventeenth chapter.
Sattvic, rajasic and tamasic foods
Sattvic foods
Fresh, wholesome, lightly cooked and easy to digest. Traditionally this means fresh fruit and vegetables; whole grains such as rice, wheat and millet; lentils and mung beans; nuts and seeds; mild spices such as cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger and cardamom; and, in the Indian tradition, milk, ghee and fresh yoghurt. Food is ideally cooked fresh and eaten soon after, in a calm setting.
Rajasic foods
Foods that stimulate: very spicy, sour, salty or fried food, strong coffee and tea, and, in many yogic traditions, onion and garlic. They are not "bad", but eaten in excess they are said to make the mind restless and agitated.
Tamasic foods
Foods that dull: stale, reheated or heavily processed food, very heavy meals, meat, alcohol and intoxicants, and overeating of any kind. They are said to bring heaviness and sluggishness, the opposite of what a morning meditation needs.
Mitahara: how much, not only what
The Hatha texts put as much weight on quantity as on content. Their word is mitahara, moderate eating. A guideline often quoted from this tradition is to fill the stomach half with food and a quarter with water, leaving a quarter empty. Practically, it means stopping before you feel full, eating at regular times, and leaving a gap of a few hours between a meal and your practice. Many people find that how they eat changes their practice more quickly than any change in what they eat.
A day of sattvic meals
On a residential course in India, a typical day might begin with a light breakfast after morning practice, perhaps porridge, fruit or poha; a main meal at midday of rice or chapati with dal, a vegetable dish and yoghurt; and a lighter, early supper, often khichdi or soup, so the body is not digesting a heavy meal through the night. Herbal teas replace coffee. Menus vary from school to school and with the season. The food is simple, but fresh, and most students are surprised by how quickly they come to enjoy it.
How to start at home
- Change one meal first. Make dinner lighter and earlier for a couple of weeks and notice how you sleep and how your morning practice feels.
- Cook fresh as often as you can, and eat soon after cooking.
- Reduce rather than ban. Cut back on coffee, alcohol and processed food gradually.
- Eat slowly and without screens. Attention at meals is part of the practice.
- Listen to your body. Traditional guidelines are a starting point, not a prescription. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or have specific nutritional needs, talk to a doctor or a qualified dietitian before changing your diet significantly.
Food and the rest of yoga
Diet is one part of a wider yogic routine that includes sleep, practice and the way we spend our days. Our article on Ayurveda and the doshas looks at how individual constitution changes what suits you, and building a daily home practice covers the rest of the routine.
Yogic diet and lifestyle is a module of our 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, and every course we run is fed with sattvic vegetarian meals. If you would like to experience it for a few days first, the 5 Day Wellness & Detox Escape in Uttarkashi is built around rest, gentle practice and simple food.
